Psycho-Educational Clinic Conducting Survey of 3000 School Children--Checks Physical and Mental Growth for 10 Years

While 3000 children in Beverly, Revere, and Lynn, attend school under typical New England conditions, a group of University psychological experts, headed by Dr. Walter Dearborn, professor of Education, has been studying their menial and physical growth, tabulating statistics, and rechecking findings with meticulous care according to J. B. Knight, administrator of the psycho-educational survey.

Yearly X-rays of every student's wrist bones are taken to show the actual bodily growth indicated by the ossification of the bones. The physical measurements are taken by three separate testers to insure accuracy.

Most of the children tested regard the survey with interest, welcoming it also as an opportunity to escape from arithmetic class. According to knight the main cause of behavior troubles is asking the child to do something he is not able or is not interested in.

Examiners encounter a varied set of answers to tests calculated to ascertain the mental ages of the children by means of having them explain various pictures. One, portraying a loving couple with supplies, being paddled down a stream in a canoe was explained as a kidnaping, a picnic, a couple sick of life and about to jump off at Niagara, and just a picture of a boy friend and a girl friend. Loyalty to the family likeness upset one test when it was found that a little girl of fire was insisting that the homely woman in the test was best looking because it looked almost exactly like one of her relatives.